United Clans of Skiron
The United Clans of Skiron was an interstellar polity and the first ally of the Greater Terran Union. Its former territories are now within the borders of the GTU as a vassal state of the Union of Nimerium. GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE The United Clans of Skiron was the democratic polity of the reptilian Skiro people. A warlike and fractious race that, upon making first contact with the Algan Republic and the Rixian Galactic Directorate, realized that they needed some form of unified government to be represent themselves on the galactic stage. Before the formation of the United Clans, the primary government of the Skiro was based upon a form of feudal hierarchy with extended biological family units not dissimilar to those found in ancient Scotland or Japan. The clans were fractious and often fought among themselves, and even with the need to form some sort of common unity, these divisions could never be entirely overcome. This led to the Skiro entering galactic affairs at a severely disadvantaged position relative to their neighbors, made all the worse due to those neighbors' hostility towards them. The United Clans itself was a limited constitutional monarchy with their head of government serving for life, and chosen by electors drawn from the heads of the largest clans. Underneath the chief clan leader was an assembly of clan chieftains that acted as a unicameral parliament drawn from the leadership of the clans and sub-clans. While the United Clans' government and High Chief nominally had responsibility for directing foreign affairs and national defense, the Clans remained largely autonomous with their own private militias and warships. During times of war the central government would call forth levies and the clans would provide their troops and ships. It was not uncommon for a Skiro warship to be crewed entirely by a sub-clan, with their own children on board as well. ALLIANCE WITH THE GTU AND THE SKIRON CAMPAIGNS Surrounded by the hostile nations of the Compact, the United Clans of Skiron realized that they needed assistance and so, they sent a diplomatic mission to London in an effort to negotiate a treaty of mutual defense with the Greater Terran Union. The GTU found the efforts of the Skiro to ingratiate themselves with them as a surprise, as up to this point all contacts with alien polities had ended poorly due to the GTU's naked suspicion of anything non-human and the claims from those polities that the GTU's governing system was authoritarian and an ideological threat. Nonetheless, xenophobic suspicion was overcome within the National Council in favor of pragmatism. The highly disadvantageous position of the United Clans insured that any alliance with them would keep the GTU as the senior partner, and would hopefully deter any aggression by the Rixian Galactic Directorate and the Algan Republic. Unfortunately, such hopes were dashed. In 2263, the Rixian Galactic Directorate and the Algan Republic declared war on the the United Clans, launching the 1st Terran-Compact war, also known as the Skiron Campaigns. While the GTU managed to perform well in the conflict, the distance between the GTU and Skiron space, and the limitations of the Skiron's own military and defense policy meant that they were swiftly overwhelmed. With the loss of their homeworld, the GTU ended their alliance with the United Clans who had their territory annexed by 2341. The nations of the Compact would go on to institute a massive reeducation campaign on the Skiro people. This reeducation, labelled with flowery words such as enlightenment, or uplifting, and with the publicly stated goal of sweeping away old traditional cultural practices that limited the advancement of the Skiron people, was in actuality a cruel and calculated effort by the Polemians and the Rixians to remove any sort of cultural or historical ties the Skiro had with their past and to better facilitate their annexation and integration into the Compact. This led to a complete breakdown of the traditional clan system amongst the Skirons, a breakdown that was never truly repaired. REVOLT, HIERARCHY AND ANNEXATION TO THE GTU Following the Third-Terran Compact War, the GTU managed to seize much of the former territories of the United Clans, including their homeworld of Skira which was taken in 2395. Politically overextended however, the GTU chose to incorporate the Skiron systems into a larger puppet state known as the Union of Nimerium. Agitators among the Skira people, in particular those who most fervently adopted the ethos of the Algan Republic, participated in the revolts that rocked the occupied territories throughout the interwar period. This eventually lead to Skira breaking away from the Union and becoming independent under a revolutionary government that promised direct democracy. Like many such revolutions however, the promised democracy never truly materialized and Skira came under the control of a secretly authoritarian, publicly egalitarian government not unlike that of the former Soviet Union of Earth. Thus was created the Skiro Interstellar Hierarchy, a tiny but fully independent polity encompassed on all sides by the GTU's Union of Nimerium. This revolutionary period on Skira attracted well meaning dissidents from all across the galaxy who wished to participate in this grand experiment in direct democracy. Among which were many dissident humans who chafed under the tier system and stratocracy of the Greater Terran Union. For several decades, the High Marshall's tolerated this state of affairs, viewing Skira itself as a sort of pressure valve that attracted dissidents and political criminals to a region outside the GTU, which they saw as preferable to having them remain and cause trouble. However, when Terran intelligence discovered that some of these dissident humans were using Skira as staging ground for plotting further revolution in the GTU itself, Fleet Command took action. In 2534, a Terran Battlegroup entered the Skira system and demanded the unconditional surrender of the Interstellar Hierarchy. Their demands were met following a desperate effort by more militant believers in the revolution that were crushed by Land Force Command. The Skiro Interstellar Hierarchy was then incorporated into the Union of Nimerium. The human dissidents themselves were either executed or exiled to the penal colony on Mictlan.